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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Monticello

I’ve lived in Virginia all of my life (with the brief exception of a 6 month jaunt to Oklahoma). During those 40+ years I’ve always lived within 1.5 hours of Monticello and had NEVER been there. But now, I have joined the ranks of the masses who have gone, and been amazed! Sadly, I also join the ranks to those who say “Ill take a photo of the front of the house when we finish our tour”…and then never get back around to the front of the house. So, here is a lovely photo of the BACK of Monticello. Photos inside the home are not allowed. However once the tour is finished, you can roam about at will. You are able to take photos in the areas under the terraces, which is where the kitchen, store rooms and other work areas were housed.

Below is a photo of one of the tunnels beneath the terrace. This one led to the kitchen, which is shown in the next series of photos.

I LOVED the kitchen. The photo above left shows the “stove”. This was basically a brick frame, with individual fire pits for each “burner”.

Touring the gardens was one of my favorite things. The 1,000 foot vegetable garden is beautiful, and still flourishing this late in the year.

With its orchards, vineyard and garden and livestock, this “home” was it’s own small community supporting over 200 people (family, slaves and craftsmen).

Along Mulberry Row is where the majority of the shops and slave dwellings were located. Now all that’s left are a few markers to tell of the people who lived and died here.

A 1/4 mile walk beyond the garden is the Jefferson Family Cemetery. The photo to the right, below is Thomas Jefferson’s grave stone.

The girls favorite part of the trip was the Griffin Discovery Room back at the Visitors Center. There were LOTS of hands on activities here and the girls could have stayed in this area forever!

This was an all day trip, and I still don’t think we covered everything. So, I’m sure we’ll be doing it again one day when the girls are older and have forgotten how great it is!